It’s been a busy just-past-midWinter here in Maine, both in stuff to do and in weather. One day it’s 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the next we get two inches of snow. Heavy snow.
Luckily, the conference we recently hosted at UMaine (Society of Composers Region I-II) had sunny/somewhat cold weather without precipitation. Unluckily, some of the performers coming into Maine ran into snow storms in the southern U.S., making for rescheduled concerts during the festival weekend. Everyone rolled with the punches, and you can see the live feed of the concerts here.
In preparing for the conference, we programmed a few of the UMaine-performer pieces on our faculty concert just before the festival. One of these was a piece I wrote during Covid, Rose’s Pictures. This piece used some material from Scene 3 of my work for Guerilla Opera, based on the life of Rose Standish Nichols, I Give You My Home. The music in this version, for flute, piano, and video, rethinks the material as a kind of fantasia, with accompanying pictures both of and by Rose Nichols herself, from her published books on gardening and of her own garden designs. The performance by my colleagues Liz Downing and Laura Artesani can be seen here, featuring Laura’s appropriate lighting choice on her instrument.
This month, I’m working on my basset horn playing, which I have not done since around 1995, but which I’m enjoying. It seems like a good way to welcome spring. If you want to hear the results, come by UMaine on March 28th…
beth wiemann 